Factors that influenced Tolkien's Writings
by The Evil Queen of Nowhere
Summary: An essay


This is an essay I wrote about what exactly it was that influenced Tolkien in what he wrote about. It was a fun and interesting write. I stand by my oddness to say that I throughly enjoy research papers. I got a hundred on this although I do not think that it deserved a one-hundred because it is in no way a perfect paper.  
  
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born on January 3rd, 1892. He lived and fought in WW1. He was surrounded by literature since he was very little. His grandfather Suffield, who played many word games, was one of the first introductions for Ronald to the legacy of language that Tolkien would end up leaving for fantasy fanatics to read and enjoy (Collins, 10-13). He began reading when he was four, and writing when he was seven. Tolkien was always involved with literature, language, and debate clubs in school, at King George's. After school, as a professor, he joined the Inklings who were a group of men that conversed about literature in Oxford (Carpenter, 149). In the Inklings was also C.S. Lewis, one of his best friends, who wrote The Chronicles of Naria (Carpenter, 155). These groups helped Tolkien to develop and fine-tune his taste for literature and for writing in itself. His first published book was The Hobbit. It was sold first on September 21st, 1937. The Editor's ten-year-old son, Rayner Unwin, was the first critic and gave the 'go ahead' for it to be printed (Houghton Mifflin). Several different factors affected the subject matter of his writings and the occurrences in his books. Tolkien's writing were based on his experiences parallel to events, which had occurred in his lifetime such as war, literature, and other events that happened in the period of time in the world in which he lived.  
  
Of the things that influenced Tolkien when he wrote The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and other books about Middle Earth and its inhabitants were parallels to his own personal experiences. Throughout his life he encountered various people and events that he borrowed ideas from for later on in his books. For an example, when he was a young child living in South Africa he was bitten by a tarantula. In both The Two Towers and The Hobbit giant venomous spiders are used to portray one of the dangers faced by hobbits in their journeys (Carpenter, 14). For another example, when J.R.R Tolkien was finishing his hike in Switzerland he bought a postcard with a German painting on it called Der Berggeist, which means The Mountain Spirit. It was his inspiration for Gandalf, the Grey Wizard, who is featured in many books about Middle Earth. (Carpenter, 51). ". Tolkien was also inspired by his love for Edith. His love is expressed by Beren, a mortal man who falls in love with the immortal elvish maiden Luthien Tinuvel". Edith was his wife and he used to write romantic poetry in the Elvish language for her about Beren and Luthien (Collins, 67). Many smaller random events in his life did indeed affect the writing of J.R.R Tolkien and are evident in his stories.  
  
Ronald Tolkien was also quite attached to the enviroment. He longed to live in a natural world, which was not scarred by the human industry and pollution that he saw to be ravaging the earth. He loved everything about nature. When he was a child he would draw any tree that he saw, and then he would climb it, and talk to it as if it was a best friend to him (Collins, 18). He lived with his mother, Mabel, and his brother, Hilary, in a small country cottage in Sarehole for about four years of his youth. He recalled those years as, "The longest seeming and most formative years of my life." He loved that place, because it was surrounded by beautiful landscape and adventures (Collins, 19). After his mother, Mabel, died he and his brother, Hilary, moved to their aunt's house, which he didn't like because it was in an urban area. He sorely missed the countryside (Collins, 27-28). Ronald Tolkien was in fact so ginger about how the earth was taken care of that as soon as he found out how terrible cars were for the environment he quit driving them and rode a bike to his job, as a professor in Oxford, everyday (Carpenter, 159). In The Lord of the Rings, a major issue addressed in the story was that if the Necromancer, Lord Sauron, was not stopped he would dominate all of Middle Earth and ruin it like he had done to Mordor. Mordor was a tortured dead place where nothing grew, the sky is blackened, and the land inhabited by orcs (which are a foul mutated version of elves). This very idea is parallel to the ethics of Tolkien about nature. He felt that if people did not take care of the Earth it would be ruined. Nature is one of the many things that influenced the subjects of what Ronald Tolkien wrote about.  
  
"Tolkien was a very loyal man" (Houghton Mifflin). He was also a very avid gardener, and he had lived in the country for most of his childhood where he loved it (Carpenter, 159). Tolkien created characters who were very much like himself in personality and disposition. These characters are a race in Middle Earth called Hobbits. Hobbits are old rustic English-like folk. They were brave when it came to protecting what they thought was important, but they had little imagination. Tolkien had created these creatures to signify people like himself who were insignificant in the scheme of things, but with humane and fun-loving hearts (Collins, 77). "Lord of the Rings was a journey for the insignificant, like Hobbits, to stand up what they valued." This was because Frodo was the main force in bringing Sauron, the Necromancer, down from power by taking the long treacherous journey to Mountdoom (Houghton Mifflin). The first Hobbit to have been created by Ronald Tolkien was the Hobbit named, Bilbo Baggins, who first appeared in his book, The Hobbit. "Bilbo took on an identity, much like that of Tolkien himself. Bilbo was middle aged, smoked a pipe, and had few worries" (Collins, 77). One of the things that affected what Tolkien wrote about was himself as you can see when contrasted to the character Bilbo and the entire race of Hobbits in general.  
  
Another topic that can be seen to greatly influence the writings of J.R.R. Tolkien is war. In 1914 england declared war on Germany. Tolkien wanted to finish getting a degree from Oxford. He joined under a special condition allowing him to finish getting his degree before he went to war (Carpenter, 73). In 1916, he embarked for France. He was twenty-four years old when he married Edith on March 22, 1916 before he left out (Carpenter, 78-79). He didn't enjoy war. "The war routine bored Tolkien. He fought to stay awake in lectures and disliked leading the repetitious, monotonous drills. Meals were inedible. There was nothing enjoyable about the art of killing" (Collins, 57-58). "Tolkien described trenchwarfare as animal horror". The above statements proved Tolkien's dislike for war in general. He hated it. He was much more a caring natural man. As a Hobbit would have in his position, he did not feel that he was meant for fighting (Collins, 69). A certain event that ocurred is strikingly similar to the journey of the fellowship to Mordor and their undeterminded courses. "The battalion marched on, dripping and cursing, to a hamlet called Rubempre." This sound remarkably similar to the very discomfort that the fellowship faced on its way to the dangerous end of their journey. The battalion was marching on to a war that they knew was inevitable. They knew that some of them would die and they would fight. The forebodeing of this situation seems to be captured by Tolkien's writing in The Lord of the Rings (Carpenter, 82). "Tolkien got to know several of the men very well. Discussing one of the principle characters in The Lord of the Rings he wrote many years later: 'My "Sam Gamgee" is indeed a reflection of the English Soldier... and recognized as so far superior to myself.' " Sam Gamgee the protective and loving companion to Frodo was shown as a protective and selfless warrior to make sure that Frodo endured the journey in Mordor. WW1 was one of the things in which many parallels to Tolkien's books about Middle Earth could be drawn.  
  
One of the most influencial factors in Tolkien's life that helped turn Middle Earth into what it was was the various languages that he studied through out his life. George Brewerton, a teacher at his school, taught J. R. R. Tolkien to speak Greek (Collins, 23). His one of his Oxford professors became his role-model and friend and was Tolkien's primary reason for having an obsession with the Welsh language (Collins, 47). Tolkien first thought to create British mythology after studying Finnish poetry and lost ballads of other forgotten myths in languages like Middle English while in college (Collins, 49). Tolkien was creating a language, and around 1915 he started writing poems in it. He decided that he needed to decide who the language belonged to. He gave it to the elves of Middle Earth and developed it more exstensively into a complex language that he called Elvish. He also created other ones later on from a mixture of present languages to make them seem as dead languages that are part of Europe's history (Carpenter, 75). Along with these languages came an entire history to the people of Middle Earth. Middle Earth was supposed to be the history of Europe when it was still fresh and natural. He was creating a set of myths for Great Britain, because unlike most countries it had none of their own. As Peter Jackson, the director of The Lord of the Rings movies puts it, "There is a sense of reality as if what you were reading was not fantasy, but history". So much detail was put into the stories that it does infact become a history book instead of just a fantastic tale to read (Houghton Mifflin). Tolkien said it himself as, "Do not laugh!... I had a mind to make a body of more or less connected legend, ranging from the large and cosmogonic to the level of romantic fairy-story in which I could dedictate simply: To England..." (Capenter, 89-90). Tolkien's writings were influence greatly by his knowledge of mythological lore and other languages. It was his grandest goal to give to his country what he had experienced through the ancient literature in which he read.  
  
Tolkien's writing were based on his experiences parallel to events, which had occurred in his lifetime such as war, literature, and other events that happened in the period of time in the world in which he lived. Things on a global to a education to a personal level effected his writing in an entire gamut of ways usually having events or ideas relating to the stories being parallel to his own. World War One was ocurring at the time and it effected his stories by adding the bloody encounters with orc armies. The mythology of other cultures like Greek and Middle English promoted the ideas of legend in Tolkien's mind. Many other random things also effected the topics that he felt were important to write about. J. R. R. was a magnificent leader of the fanasty world and created an original world for readers to enjoy and other writers to learn from while giving Great Britain one of the greatest legends the world has ever seen. 


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